Building a better society

Minsheng, or people's livelihoods, is now a ubiquitous word in official documents and speeches, showing the importance the government has attached to improving the quality of people's lives over the past 10 years.

And despite the public grievances against the growing wealth gap and corruption, there can be no denying there have been tremendous improvements in people's living standards over the past decade.

The country has built almost from scratch a healthcare security net that covers more than 95 percent of its citizens in the past 10 years. The proportion of their medical bills people have to pay was reduced from 61 percent in 2001 to 35 percent in 2011, and the subsidies governments at all levels give to the rural healthcare cooperative scheme have increased to 240 yuan ($38.51) per capita from 20 yuan per capita in 2003. Also in the past decade, a national pension system covering 380 million urban and rural residents has been established.

To improve people's living conditions, the government has renovated the homes of 10 million urban households since 2001, and more than 1 million households have moved into new houses in the past few years. At the same time, 36 million affordable-housing units are due to be constructed from 2011 to 2015 for low-income residents.

But despite these achievements, more efforts are needed to further improve the quality of people's lives. Reforms in such areas as State-owned hospitals, the household registration system, the income distribution scheme and the incorporation of rural laborers into the cities where they work and live need to be pushed forward to promote greater social equality and fairness.

The announcement that practical measures will be adopted to incorporate rural laborers into the cities where they stay and work is welcome, as it means not only will this group of disadvantaged residents hopefully enjoy the same social benefits as their urban counterparts in the near future, but also the focus on improving people's well-being will continue as the Party embraces change at the top.

It is no easy job for the world's most populous nation to provide all its residents with equal opportunities for social mobility and personal development. But there is enough reason to expect further reforms to improve social fairness.

(China Daily 11/13/2012 page9)